The local paper for the Upper
per West Side
p
Sid
THE WOMAN
WHO PIONEERED
ABSTRACT
PAINTING
◄ P.12

WEEK OF FEBRUARY

7-13
2019

WE’RE GOING TO NEED A BIGGER BALLOT
ELECTIONS
They’re not exactly the magnificent
17. But the overcrowded public
advocate’s race features plenty of
liberal activists, some with rap
sheets — and an upstart Republican
who just might eke out a win
BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN

They have street cred and progressive
bona ﬁdes. Several boast of encounters
with the NYPD. Some have even been ar-

rested — repeatedly — during protests,
sit-ins and acts of civil disobedience.
Their outrage is directed at all things
Trump. And they have something else
in common: Each ranks among the
leading candidates vying in the Feb.
26 special election for the post of public advocate.
The cast is dizzying. The ﬁeld is almost surreally oversized. There are 17
contenders on the ballot, including 15
Democrats, winnowed down from the
23 who originally submitted nominating petitions.
No frontrunner has yet surfaced. Po-

I haven’t been arrested —
I’m the guy they call to get
out of jail when other people
get arrested.”
West Side Assembly Member
Danny O’Donnell

litical clubhouses haven’t coalesced
around anyone. So liberal are the
hopefuls, so fractured their support,
that if no Democrats break out, an underdog Republican could squeak in.
At stake is a citywide office that is
supposed to serve as a watchdog and
ombudsman for New Yorkers — but
that has traditionally functioned as a
training ground and launching pad for
ambitious pols on the make.
While the position has few official
responsibilities, its occupants have
proved adept at holding press conferences, issuing reports, hiring staff and

A GOP CLUB DIVIDED
POLITICS
Ian Walsh Reilly is the new
Metropolitan Republican Club
president, emerging as victor in
contested election in the aftermath
of Proud Boys violence
BY MICHAEL GAROFALO

A hotly contested Jan. 30 election to
determine the next president of the
Metropolitan Republican Club highlighted tensions among members,
returning the historic political organization to the public eye four months
after chaotic street violence erupted
on the Upper East Side following a
club event featuring the founder of a
far-right group.
The bitterly fought campaign, which
pitted two supporters of President
Donald Trump against one another,
divided the club’s membership and
raised questions about the Republican Party’s future in Manhattan —

mirroring currents that have roiled
the GOP nationally.
Metropolitan Club members elected
Ian Walsh Reilly, 38, to serve as president at the club’s annual meeting.
Reilly defeated his opponent, Robert
Morgan, 66, by a margin of 324 to 270.
Some members cast the contest as a
generational struggle between Morgan, a past club president who was
supported by a number of notable
ﬁgures within the Republican Party
establishment, and Reilly, who is seen
by some as representative of a more
strident brand of far-right politics.
Contested elections have been unheard of in recent decades at the storied Metropolitan Club, historically a
bastion of establishment Republicanism stretching back to the days when
it counted President Theodore Roosevelt as a member.
Reilly, in a message to supporters on his campaign Facebook page,
which features a sketch of President
Donald Trump in proﬁle and the slogan “Keeping the Met Club Great,”

generating press releases, often selfaggrandizing in nature.
Expect abysmally low turnout. Voters aren’t accustomed to dead-of-winter balloting in arctic conditions.
“You might see 12 to 15 percent,” said
Democratic political strategist George
Arzt, who served as Mayor Ed Koch’s
press secretary in the late 1980s.
Winning is not the sine qua non. Selfpromotion plays a key role. “A lot of people are in this campaign to raise their
proﬁles for future races,” Arzt said.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 14

I don’t think that you can
blame the victim.”
Metropolitan Republican Club
President Ian Walsh Reilly on the
club’s role in the street violence
that followed an Oct. 2018 event
featuring Gavin McInnes
warned of “anti-Trump forces of the
Republican Establishment [...] reasserting themselves and plotting a
takeover of the Metropolitan Republican Club.” Reilly’s campaign won
public support from the right-wing
agitator Milo Yiannopoulos, who denounced Morgan’s campaign against
Reilly as an “anti-MAGA coup d’état”
in a New Year’s Eve Facebook post to
his 2.4 million followers.
In a telephone interview with Our
Town, Reilly said he does not consider his political views far-right. “I
don’t think supporting the president
is a far-right position, so I don’t characterize myself in that way,” he said.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 7

Westsider
WEEK OF APRIL

SPRING
ARTS
PREVIEW

WestSideSpirit

WESTSIDE
SPIRIT.COM
@WestSideSpirit

Crime Watch
Voices
NYC Now
City Arts

3
8
10
12

Restaurant Ratings 14
Business
16
Real Estate
17
15 Minutes
20

< CITYARTS,
P.12

NEWS
residents
A vocal group of U.W.S.
Transportation
isn’t convinced the doing enough
is
Committee of CB7
BY LISA BROWN

CONTINUED ON PAGE

MANHATTAN'S
APARTMENT
BOOM,
>
PROPERTY, P.20

2015

In Brief
MORE HELP FOR
SMALL BUSINESS

PROTESTING THE
COMMUNITY
BOARD OVER
TRAFFIC DEATHS

Zero, Mayor Bill
One year into Visionreducing trafficfor
de Blasio’s plan
traffic
the number of
has
related deaths,
Upper West Side
fatalities on the
compared to last
actually increased,
year’s ﬁgures.
Upper West Siders
-That has some
needs to be done
convinced more
of the Transstarting with members
of the local comportation Committee
munity board.
West
mother, Upper
Lisa Sladkus, a
member of TransSide resident and
said she’s fed
at
portation Alternatives
a silent protest
up, and organized 7’s February board
Community Board
residents
dozens of
meeting, where
Committee
called for Transportation
leaders to step down.
against incredible
“We have run up
imto get safe street
trying
just
problems
said. “This was
provements,” she our point across
get
another way to
dissatisﬁed.”
that we are very
involved with
Sladkus has been
Alternatives since
Transportation served as director
2002 and formerly Streets’ RenaisSide
of Upper West
She says becoming
sance Campaign. really got her into
a mother is what
activism.
streets around me
“Just noticing the as a pedestrian
I felt
and how unsafe
she said. “I wanted
and as a cyclist,”

9-15

The effort to help small
seems to
businesses in the city
be gathering steam.
Two city councilmembers,
Robert
Margaret Chin and
Cornegy, have introduced
create
legislation that wouldSmall
a new “Office of the within
Business Advocate” of Small
the city’s Department
Business Services.
Chin
The new post, which
have up
told us she’d like to would
and running this year, for
serve as an ombudsman
city
small businesses within
them clear
government, helping
to get
bureaucracy
the
through
things done.
Perhaps even more
also
importantly, the ombudsman
and number
will tally the type small
business
of complaints by taken in
owners, the actions policy
response, and somefor ways to
recommendations If done well,
begin to ﬁx things. report would
the ombudsman’s
give us the ﬁrst quantitative
with
taste of what’s wrong
the city, an
small businesses in towards
step
rst
ﬁ
important
ﬁxing the problem.
of
To really make a difference,
for developers
will have to
is a mere formality their projects
course, the advocaterising rents,
are the work
complete
precinct, but chances-- thanks to a looking to
ﬁnd a way to tackle business’
legally
quickly.
is being done
which remain many While Chin
their own hours,”
of after-hours
“They pick out
boom in the number throughout
who lives on
most vexing problem.
gauge what
said Mildred Angelo,of the Ruppert
construction permits
said it’s too early tocould have
Buildings
one
the 19th ﬂoor in
The Department of
the city.
role the advocate
number
three years, the Houses on 92nd Street between
on the
She
Over the past
is handing out a record
there, more information
work perThird avenues.
permits,
bad thing.
of Second and an ongoing all-hours
number of after-hours
of after-hours work
problem can’t be a
the city’s Dept.
with the
said there’s
where
mits granted by
This step, combinedBorough
according to new data
project nearby
jumped 30 percent,
noise
in construction
Buildings has
efforts by Manhattan to mediate
data provided
constantly make
BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS
according to DOB
from trucks.
President Gale Brewer
of Informa- workers
offer
transferring cement
response to a Freedom
the rent renewal process,
they want. They
city classiﬁes
knows the
signs
Act request. The between 6 “They do whateverthey please. They
Every New Yorker
some early, tangible small
clang, the tion
work
come and go as
of progress. For many
sound: the metal-on-metal beeps of a any construction
weekend, can
can’t come
piercing
a.m., or on the
have no respect.”
at p.m. and 7
business owners, that
hollow boom, the
issuance of these
reverse. A glance
The increased a correspond
after-hours.
soon enough.
truck moving in
has generated
can hardly as
has led to

SLEEPS, THANKS TO
THE CITY THAT NEVER
UCTION
A BOOM IN LATE-NIGHT CONSTR

29

WestSideSpirit

WESTSIDE
SPIRIT COM

NEWS

and you
the alarm clock
middle of the night,
believe it: it’s the
carries on fulland yet construction
tilt.
or your local police
You can call 311

Newscheck
Crime Watch
Voices
Out & About

The surge in permitsfees for the city
in
millions of dollars
consome residents
agency, and left
application process
vinced that the

2 City Arts
3 Top 5
8 Real Estate
10 15 Minutes

12
13
14
18

variances

CONTINUED ON PAGE

29

We deliver! Get The Spirit Westsider
sent directly to your mailbox for
$
$49 per year. Go to WestSideSpirit.com
or call 212-868-0190

2

FEBRUARY 7-13,2019

The Spirit|Westsider westsidespirit.com

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
HOSPITALS AND CONSTRUCTION
COSTS
“The Metamorphosis of a Hospital”
(January 17-23) is alarming from a
medical viewpoint. The article fails
to specify what medical facilities will
be built, how they will be financed
or whether or not they are needed.
Construction of new health care facilities requires a certiﬁcate of need
(CON) from the New York State Health
Department. The rationale for this
requirement is: excess and thus underutilized facilities give rise to increases in the cost of medical care.
These increases are needed to cover
maintenance costs for underutilized
facilities. Initial construction costs
may also be problematic. It appears
that in this case Lenox Hill’s construction costs will be covered by the proceeds the from the sale of real estate
already in its portfolio and/or proﬁts
from non medical commercial investments envisioned for the project.
Given that institutions often satisfy
construction-related debt by increasing the cost of medical care to its patients, it is important that the funding
sources be made public.
The requirement that no monies derived from patient-care delivery can

The local paper for the Upper West Side

be used for capital improvement projects is a staple in all robust progressive health care legislation. To this
end, our state legislature is considering a single payer health care bill (New
York Health) that — among other
things — prohibits institutions from
diverting income from health care delivery services to capital improvement
projects.
The notion that institutions devoted
to health care delivery should function
primarily as machines to generate
proﬁt is upsetting.
Marc H Lavietes MD
Soho

BACK AND FORTH ON THE L TRAIN
The devil is in the details concerning Governor Cuomo’s proposed new
design for the Canarsie L Line Subway Tunnel project. (“Averting the
L-pocalypse,” January 10-16). Several
hundred million dollars in funding
was provided under a Federal Transit
Administration Super Storm Sandy
Recovery and Resiliency grant in 2016.
What is the new design impact on budget, engineering, milestones, scope of
work changes, useful life of the invest-

ment, overnight and weekend track
outages along with more NYC Transit
Force Account (employees) to protect
private contractor workers, which nobody has seen?
When will the MTA HQ, board members, NYC Transit, NYCDOT managers
and engineers along with the Federal
Transit Administration formally review and comment on this new design
and budget impacts? Ditto for both the
MTA & FTA independent oversight
engineering consulting firms. The
winning contractors’ Judlau and TC
Electric $477 million bid was based on
the original scope of work and design
proposed by the MTA. This included
included 24/7 site access to both tunnels with no active subway.
This contract will now have to be renegotiated. They now have the basis
to request additional reimbursement
in the millions. These added costs will
be far more than any credits given the
contractor for deletion of work as a
result of the new design. Contractors’
claims for additional ﬁnancial reimbursement can be based upon delay
claims due to limited site access and
change orders for signiﬁcant design
and work scope changes to the original contract. Who will cover costs for

Advertise with
The West Side Spirit today!
Call Vincent Gardino
at 212-868-0190

WestSideSpirit.com

The Park Avenue side of Lenox Hill Hospital on 77th Street in a recent photo. A portion
of the super-expensive parcel is being eyed for possible sale and redevelopment.
Photo: Douglas Feiden
materials previously ordered by the
contractor in preparation for initiation of work in April that may now not
be needed? How will the MTA ﬁnd additional funding to supplement previously approved federal Super Storm
Sandy Relief and Resiliency grant
dollars? How many more months

and even years will it take beyond 15
months to now complete all work?
Don’t be surprised if it takes between
two to three years.
Larry Penner
Great Neck, NY

FEBRUARY 7-13,2019

3

The Spirit|Westsider westsidespirit.com

CRIME WATCH BY JERRY DANZIG
WEST SIDE THUGGERY
It was quite a week for late-night
muggings on the UWS. At 3:20 a.m.
on Monday, Jan. 21, a 55-year-old
man was walking past 215 West
95th St. when two unknown men
grabbed him from behind. One of the
pair knocked him to his knees while
the other searched his pockets and
asked, “Where’s the phone?” They
took a phone from his right front jacket
pocket but apparently missed a second
phone in the same pocket. Then the
men ﬂed westbound toward Broadway.
The victim had minor injuries to both
knees but refused medical attention at
the scene. The items stolen included
a phone valued at $1,099 and a pair of
Beats headphones worth $300, for a
total of $1,399.
Two days later, a different man
was mugged by three men in front of
196 West 108th St.. Around 5 a.m.
on Wednesday, Jan. 23, a 19-yearold man was confronted by three
individuals who pushed him into an
alley. One of the men discharged a
yellow, handheld taser but missed
the victim. Another man grabbed his
satchel. The three men then ﬂed north
on Amsterdam Ave. and eventually
split up. The victim refused medical
attention. The stolen satchel was a
Louis Vuitton, valued at $750.

with closed ﬁsts while yelling at him.
Police arrived and arrested Adrian
Gonzalez on charges of robbery. The
cabbie said he had a pain in his chest
but refused medical attention.

MOTHERS VS DAUGHTERS
Mother and daughter relationships
can be difficult, but these two turned
violent. In the ﬁrst incident, which took
place on Monday, Dec. 10, police said
Allison Fields, 50, went to her 82-yearold mother’s apartment at 345 West
88th St. to get some belongings.
When the mother refused to let Fields
take the property, the younger woman
punched her mother, beaking her arm.
Fields was arrested on Wednesday,

Jan. 23. The charges included assault,
criminal mischief and disorderly
conduct.
In the second incident, which took
place on Friday afternoon, Jan. 25,
a 25-year-old woman was walking
up the steps at the West 103rd St.
and Broadway subway station as
her mother was walking down the
same steps. According to police, the
mother took her keys and scratched
her daughter’s face with them before
hitting her in the head with a beer
bottle. Finally, police said, the mother
jumped on top of her daughter, causing
both women to fall down the stairs. The
daughter refused medical attention at
the scene.

STATS FOR THE WEEK
Reported crimes from the 24th precinct for the week endingJan 27
Week to Date

Year to Date

2019 2018

% Change

2019

2018

% Change

Murder

0

0

n/a

1

0

n/a

Rape

0

0

n/a

1

1

0.0

Robbery

4

2

100.0

8

10

-20.0

Felony Assault

2

6

-66.7

12

14

-14.3

Burglary

1

4

-75.0

8

9

-11.1

Grand Larceny

13

9

44.4

31

39

-20.5

Grand Larceny Auto

0

0

n/a

0

1

-100.0

FARE-BEATER BUST
Police said a man was arrested after
refusing to pay a taxi fare and then
assaulting the driver he tried to stiff.
At 3:20 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 24, a
52-year-old male cabbie picked up a
49-year-old male passenger at Ninth
Ave. and West 51st St.. When they
arrived at the passenger’s destination,
Columbus Ave. and West 90th St.,
the passenger refused to pay the
$11 fare and walked away. When the
cabbie called the police, the passenger
returned and struck him on his chest

Photo by Tony Webster, via Flickr

Going to the Airport?
1-212-666-6666
Sedan Rates:
To LaGuardia ........... $34 $4 OFF
To Newark ............... $51
Any Trip Over $20

TELL US ABOUT SOMEONE
Making A Difference
in the Neighborhood
Once again this year The West Side Spirit
will recognize West Siders making a
difference in the neighborhood with
a WESTY (West Side Spirit Thanks You) Award.

WE ARE LOOKING FOR YOUR SUGGESTIONS:
who should we highlight and interview about their work in
the neighborhood? Who’s making a difference?
Please send your nominations to comm.engage@strausnews.com
or call 212-868-0190 and ask for Aija

4

FEBRUARY 7-13,2019

The Spirit|Westsider westsidespirit.com

Drawing Board
HOW TO REACH US:

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:

212-868-0190
nyoffice@strausnews.com
westsidespirit.com

Include your full name, address and day
and evening telephone numbers for veriﬁcation. Letters that cannot be veriﬁed will
not be published. We reserve the right
to edit or condense letters for libel, good
taste, grammar and punctuation. Submit
your letter at westsidespirit.com and click
submit at the bottom of the page or email
it to nyoffice@strausnews.com.

TO SUBSCRIBE:
The West Side Spirit is available for
free on the west side in select buildings,
retail locations and news boxes. To get
a copy of west side neighborhood news
mailed to you weekly, you may subscribe
to The Westsider for just $49 per year.
Call 212-868-0190 or go online to
StrausNews.com and click on the photo
of the paper or mail a check to Straus
Media, 20 West Ave., Chester, NY
10918

BLOG COMMENTS:
We invite your comments on stories and
issues at westsidespirit.com. We do not
edit those comments. We urge people
to keep the discussion civil and the tone
reﬂective of the best we each have to offer.

PLACE A CLASSIFIED AD:
NEWS ITEMS:
To report a news story, call 212-8680190. News releases of general interest
must be emailed to our offices by noon
the Thursday prior to publication to be
considered for the following week. Send
releases to news@strausnews.com.

Call 212-868-0190. Classiﬁed ads
must be in our office by 12pm the Friday
before publication, except on holidays.
All classiﬁed ads are payable in advance.

Information for inclusion in our calendar
should be posted to nycnow.com no later
than two weeks before the event.

The West Side Spirit is published weekly
by Straus Media-Manhattan, LLC.
Please send inquiries to 20 West Ave.,
Chester, NY 10918.

Give your money a raise
Make your money work harder by earning higher interest rates. Talk to a banker for more details. Offer expires March 22, 2019.
Platinum Savings Account

2.10%

Fixed Rate CD

2.60%

Annual Percentage Yield for 12 months1

Enjoy a special interest rate for 12 months with new money deposits of at least
$25,000 and a minimum daily account balance of $25,000 or more.

Annual Percentage Yield
for 11 months2

Guaranteed fixed rate with new money deposits
of at least $25,000 for an 11-month term.

Both accounts are FDIC-insured up to the maximum allowable limit. Platinum Savings offer available in CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, MD, NJ, NY, SC
and VA. Fixed Rate CD offer available in AL, AZ, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, MD, NJ, NM, NV, NY, PA, SC and VA. Portfolio by Wells Fargo® customers
are eligible to receive an additional interest rate bonus on these accounts.3
1. To qualify for this offer, you must have a new or existing Platinum Savings account and enroll the account in this offer between 01/21/2019 and 03/22/2019. This offer is subject to change at any time, without notice. This offer is available only to Platinum Savings customers in
the following states: CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, MD, NJ, NY, SC and VA. In order to earn the Special Interest Rate of 2.08% (Special Rate), you must deposit $25,000 in new money (from sources outside of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., or its affiliates) to the enrolled savings account and maintain
a minimum daily account balance of $25,000 throughout the term of this offer. The corresponding Annual Percentage Yield (APY) for this offer is 2.10%. The Special Rate will be applied to the enrolled savings account for a period of 12 months, starting on the date the account is
enrolled in the offer. However, for any day during that 12 month period that the daily account balance is less than the $25,000 minimum, the Special Rate will not apply and the interest rate will revert to the standard interest rate applicable to your Platinum Savings account. As
of 12/10/2018, the standard interest rate and APY for a Platinum Savings account in CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, MD, NJ, NY, SC and VA with an account balance of $0.01 to $99,999.99 is 0.03% (0.03% APY) and with an account balance of $100,000 and above is 0.05% (0.05% APY). Each tier
shown reflects the current minimum daily collected balance required to obtain the applicable APY. Interest is compounded daily and paid monthly. The amount of interest earned is based on the daily collected balances in the account. Upon the expiration of the 12 month promotional
period, standard interest rates apply. Minimum to open a Platinum Savings account is $25. A monthly service fee of $12 applies in any month the account falls below a $3,500 minimum daily balance. Fees may reduce earnings. Interest rates are variable and subject to change
without notice. Wells Fargo may limit the amount you deposit to a Platinum Savings account to an aggregate of $1 million. Offer not available to Private Banking, Wealth, Business Banking or Wholesale customers. 2. Annual Percentage Yield (APY) is effective for accounts opened
between 01/21/2019 and 03/22/2019. The 11-month New Dollar CD special requires a minimum of $25,000 brought to Wells Fargo from sources outside of Wells Fargo Bank N.A., or its affiliates to earn the advertised APY. Public Funds and Wholesale accounts are not eligible for this
offer. APY assumes interest remains on deposit until maturity. Interest is compounded daily. Payment of interest on CDs is based on term: For terms less than 12 months (365 days), interest may be paid monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, or at maturity (the end of the term). For terms
of 12 months or more, interest may be paid monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, or annually. A fee for early withdrawal will be imposed and could reduce earnings on this account. Special Rates are applicable to the initial term of the CD only. At maturity, the Special Rate CD will
automatically renew for a term of 6 months, at the interest rate and APY in effect for CDs on renewal date not subject to a Special Rate, unless the Bank has notified you otherwise. Due to the new money requirement, accounts may only be opened at your local branch. Wells Fargo
reserves the right to modify or discontinue the offer at any time without notice. Offer cannot be combined with any other consumer deposit offer. Minimum new money deposit requirement of at least $25,000 is for this offer only and cannot be transferred to another account to
qualify for any other consumer deposit offer. If you wish to take advantage of another consumer deposit offer requiring a minimum new money deposit, you will be required to do so with another new money deposit as stated in the offer requirements and qualifications. Offer
cannot be reproduced, purchased, sold, transferred, or traded. 3. The Portfolio by Wells Fargo program has a $30 monthly service fee, which can be avoided when you have one of the following qualifying balances: $25,000 or more in qualifying linked bank deposit accounts (checking,
savings, CDs, FDIC-insured IRAs) or $50,000 or more in any combination of qualifying linked banking, brokerage (available through Wells Fargo Advisors, LLC) and credit balances (including 10% of mortgage balances, certain mortgages not eligible). If the Portfolio by Wells Fargo
relationship is terminated, the bonus interest rate on all eligible savings accounts, and discounts or fee waivers on other products and services, will discontinue and revert to the Bank’s then-current applicable rate or fee. For bonus interest rates on time accounts, this change will
occur upon renewal. If the Portfolio by Wells Fargo relationship is terminated, the remaining unlinked Wells Fargo Portfolio Checking or Wells Fargo Prime Checking account will be converted to another checking product or closed.

Investment and Insurance Products:
Are not Insured by FDIC or any Federal Government Agency

DO YOU HAVE SOMETHING YOU’D LIKE US TO LOOK INTO?
EMAIL US AT NEWS@STRAUSNEWS.COM

Info M

eeting

PROTESTS

March

2

Billie Jean King was featured
speaker at Saturday event on
steps of the AMNH

FINDYOURFUN

BY RICHARD BARR

On Saturday, Community
United to Protect Theodore
Roosevelt Park, which is contesting the planned expansion
of the American Museum of
Natural History into the park
surrounding it, held a rally
on the steps of the museum.
At the event, supporters were
updated on the status of the
group’s challenge to the museum’s plans. Although AMNH
received initial City approval to
build its planned new science
center out into a quarter acre of
Theodore Roosevelt Park, cutting down seven large canopy
trees in the process, Community United filed a lawsuit in
the State’s Appellate Division,
which then issued a temporary
restraining order preventing the project from moving
forward while arguments are
prepared to litigate the appeal.
Michael Hiller, Community
United’s lawyer, said that if
the City wants to give away
public land it has to either go
through the uniform land use
review process (ULURP) or
seek approval from the State
Legislature, and it did neither.
Hiller said that the City instead
falsely maintained that an 1876
statute gave AMNH the rights
to the entire park, when in fact
it was for only one building,
and that each time the Museum
wanted to expand since then it
went to the State for approval
until now, when it claimed it
didn’t have to do so.
Hiller also said that an environmental review showed
there were contaminants below the ground which would, if
planned excavation took place,
threaten the neighborhood. He
said that the appeal papers are
ready and he hoped the court
will grant an expedited appeal
process which will allow for
arguments to be presented in
May, unless the restraining order is vacated before then.

Hands-on enrichment programs
for elementary, middle, and
high school students
explore.explo.org/fun

DENTAL Insurance
Physicians Mutual Insurance Company

A less expensive way to help
get the dental care you deserve!
CALL
NOW!

FREE
Information Kit

1-855-225-1434

Get help paying dental bills and keep more money in
your pocket
This is real dental insurance — NOT just a discount plan
You can get coverage before your next checkup

Don’t wait! Call now and we’ll rush you a FREE
Information Kit with all the details.

1-855-225-1434
Visit us online at

www.dental50plus.com/nypress

Insurance Policy P150NY
6129

MB17-NM003Ec

Saving a Life EVERY 11 MINUTES
Michael Hiller, attorney for Community United to Protect Theodore Roosevelt Park, spoke at the protest on
Saturday, Oct. 2. Photo: Richard Barr
Tennis legend Billie Jean King,
who joined Community United
recently, was a featured speaker
at the rally. She said that she has
been living in the neighborhood
of the Park since the mid-1970s.
She ﬁrst thought that there was
no chance the Park would be
impacted by Museum expansion, and that green space and
public parks are critical for the

Upper West Side. She said she
loves the museum but that this
is about the park for her, and
for conserving and saving our
trees. “If the museum wants to
build a science center for the
education of young students,”
King said, “why don’t they build
it in a more underserved area,
like the Bronx, for example?”
Community United leader Bill

Raudenbush closed the rally,
saying that it is improper to
build in a public park when viable alternatives exist, and that
the project was presented with
no master plan. “Democracy
dies in the shadows,” Raudenbush said. “We need transparency, not backroom deals.”

+HOSDW+RPH

+HOSLQ6KRZHU
with

GPS !

+HOS2QWKH*R

HELP

®
up!
t
e
g
t
’
n
a
and I c
I’ve fallen

®

VISIT OUR WEBSITE! at WESTSIDESPIRIT.COM
D E SP

Get HELP fast, 24/7,
anywhere with

For a FREE brochure call:

1-800-404-9776

6

FEBRUARY 7-13,2019

The Spirit|Westsider westsidespirit.com

‘IN A WORD, IT’S A HORROR.’
RELIGION
Two elite Jesuit schools
confront painful revelations
about priests from their past
BY EMILY HIGGINBOTHAM

Xavier High School reached out to students, parents and alumni in the wake of the release of the names of
Jesuit priests accused of sexual abuse of minors. Photo: Courtesy of Xavier High School

Join the Celebration

75 Years of
No-Kill Action
and Compassion

Follow The West Side Spirit
on Facebook and Twitter

Westsider

The sexual abuse crisis that
has plagued the Catholic
Church for decades has now
reached two prominent Manhattan high schools.
A list naming Jesuit priests,
who were identiﬁed by the Society of Jesus as having credible allegations of sexual abuse,
was published on January 15,
revealing that Regis and Xavier high schools were among
the institutions where some
of these accused priests spent
parts of their careers.
The step toward transparency comes as the Catholic
Church deals with new investigations by federal and state
law enforcement. The release
of the list has also forced local
institutions to review how they
communicate about the abuse
crisis, especially when the accused were once a part of their
community.
Out of the 50 men on the list
made public by the Northeastern Jesuit Province, four
worked at Regis between
the 1950s and 80s, and seven
worked at Xavier between
the 1940s and early 2000s.
One priest spent time at both
schools.
The time the priests spent at
either school varied, with some
serving at the institutions for
only a couple years and others
for more than a decade. In some
cases, priests had decades-long
careers in which they spent
time at several Jesuit schools in
New York and the northeastern
United States.
Many of the priests are now
deceased, while some have
been defrocked, have left the
ministry or have been restricted from service involving minors.
Regis officials declined to
be interviewed for this story,
but provided Our Town with a
statement.
“There are four men on that
list whose allegations pertain
to incidents while at Regis.
There is also one man who is on
that list who worked at Regis at
one time and has an allegation
against him from some later
time and place,” the statement
said. “No abuse is acceptable,
and we are horrified and distressed by each one of these al-

Xavier High School president Jack Raslowsky. Photo: Courtesy of Xavier
High School
legations. All victims of sexual
abuse are in our prayers.”
The accused abusers and their
tenure at the Upper East Side
school include: John Farrand,
1957-61; John Gallen, 1957-60;
Edward Horgan, 1954-57, 6370; James Kuntz, 1983-84, 8994; and Robert Voelke 1969-80.
All but Kuntz (who pleaded
guilty to a child pornography
offense after his time at Regis
and Xavier) are dead.
Officials at Regis have reviewed the school’s policies
and continue to work to create a
safe place for students, according to the statement.
As for Xavier, none of the accusations of abuse against the
priests stem from their time
at the Chelsea prep school, according to its president, Jack
Raslowsky.
Raslowsky said the province
gave him a week’s notice that
Xavier would appear on the
list, but he said he had been
aware of some of the names
on the list already. The priests
include: Cornelius Carr, 198083; Thomas Denny, 1969-70;
Raymond Fullam, 1946-48;
John Garvey, 1989-2002; James
Kuntz, 1971-74; Keith Picklers,
1984-87; William Scanlon, 197172; and Joseph Towle, 1960-63.
Denny, Kuntz, Picklers and
Scanlon are alive, according to
the province’s list.

“In a word, it’s a horror,”
Raslowsky told Our Town in a
recent interview. He called the
abuse crisis a failure in leadership, and a problem that encompasses the church at large.
Since becoming the first lay
president of Xavier in 2009,
Raslowsky has sought to
change the leadership culture
by embracing transparency
and establishing strict policies
that aim to protect students
from abuse.
In anticipation of the province’s list, Raslowsky sent a
letter to a network of 19,000
alumni, parents, past parents
and other members of the
Xavier community addressing
what was to become public the
following day.
“No one has been more affected by the abuse crisis than
victims and their families. Recognizing and acknowledging
abuse often takes many years
and can involve a lifetime of
healing,” he wrote. “It is hoped
that the release of the names
of those credibly accused will
help the healing of victims.
Their healing and the prevention of future abuse must be
our first priorities in word,
deed, and action.”
The letter provided the community with information about

CONTINUED ON PAGE 18

FEBRUARY 7-13,2019

GOP
CLUB
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
Morgan won the backing
of many members of the city
and state Republican Party
establishment — including
Manhattan Republican Party
Chairwoman Andrea Catsimatidis — as well as support from
several recent Republican candidates for public office in New
York, such as former mayoral
candidate and current Assembly Member Nicole Malliotakis
and former East Side State Senate candidate Pete Holmberg.

‘A cancer that is growing within
the club’
Morgan wrote of the need “to
keep the club away from needless divisions and controversies” in a campaign message to
members, apparently a reference to a now-infamous Oct. 12
event at the club featuring the
right-wing provocateur Gavin
McInnes.
McInnes is the founder of the
Proud Boys, a self-described
“pro-Western fraternal organization”’ whose members have
been involved in political violence in recent years Charlottesville, Va. and Portland, Ore.,
among other incidents.
Following McInnes’s Oct. 12
speech, members of the Proud
Boys engaged in violent clashes
with anti-fascist protesters on
the streets surrounding the
Metropolitan Club’s stately
East 83rd Street headquarters. The incident and ensuing
fallout attracted national media attention and the club was
widely criticized for hosting
McInnes and allowing Proud
Boys to attend the event.
Some Morgan supporters
claimed Reilly was responsible for inviting McInnes to
the speak at the club, a charge
Reilly and his supporters deny.
McInnes spoke at the club the
previous year without incident and was rescheduled by
the club as a matter of course,
Reilly said. The Metropolitan
Club promoted the program
as “an unforgettable evening
with one of Liberty’s Loudest
Voices” and hailed McInnes for
having “taken on and exposed
the Deep State Socialists and
stood up for Western Values.”
One club member, who supported Morgan and asked not
to be identiﬁed, characterized
the election as a referendum
on the McInnes incident and
the club’s response to the aftermath.
“The Gavin McInnes incident
was like a cancer that is growing within the club, and we
were hoping to eradicate it by
handing Ian Reilly a humiliating defeat,” the member said.

7

The Spirit|Westsider westsidespirit.com
“It didn’t work, and we’re kind
of screwed.”
“There are a lot of issues that
need to be worked out within
the club, and within the Party
overall,” the individual said,
adding, “There could be a mass
exodus from the club, and that
would be a form of accountability.”
Reilly said that the Metropolitan Club does not bear responsibility for the violence that
followed the event. Instead,
he noted that the club was
vandalized prior to the event
and blamed anti-fascist protesters for instigating the violence that followed McInnes’s
speech. (The New York Times
obtained surveillance footage
of one violent incident on East
82nd Street that shows a Proud
Boy charging at a group of left
wing protesters, sparking a
brawl that lasted less than a
minute and broke up upon the
arrival of NYPD officers, who
made no arrests at the scene.)
“That violence took place
away from the club,” Reilly
said.
“I don’t think that you can
blame the victim,” he said. “I
don’t think that’s an appropriate response.”
McInnes distanced himself
from the Proud Boys following
the Metropolitan Club incident,
which ultimately resulted in
the arrest of at least 10 Proud
Boys members and three antifascist protesters. McInnes
has advocated for the use of
violence against political opponents in the past, calling it
“a really effective way to solve
problems.”
“Gavin is a performance artist, a satirist,” Reilly said.
Reilly said that while McInnes
will not be invited back to the
Metropolitan Club anytime
soon, as president he will continue to extend invitations to
other controversial conservative speakers the club has hosted in the past, such as Tucker
Carlson and Ann Coulter.

A struggle for the party’s future
John William Schiffbauer, a
Republican campaign consultant and former deputy communications director for the
state Republican Party, said
that an embrace of the farright fringe at the club would
not bode well for the party’s
electoral fortunes in New York.
“The Met Club comprises the
large majority of people who
vote in primaries and work on
campaigns” in Manhattan, he
said. “Anything that pushes the
party further to the right and
toward supporting extreme
candidates hurts us statewide.”
“If [Reilly] keeps going in the
direction his campaign went
in, I think it’s going to further

fracture and alienate the GOP
in Manhattan.”
Alexandra Sherer, a 23-yearold club member who worked
on Morgan’s campaign, took
issue with the notion that the
divide between the candidates
was split along generational or
ideological lines. For her, the
key issue was whose supporters were best prepared to do
the work of grassroots organizing.
“I have nothing against Ian
personally,” Sherer said. “It’s
more some of people he’s associated with that I’m not the
biggest fans of,” referencing a
“MAGA group” of “Facebook
warrior-types” that supported
Reilly, who she said were more
interested in fighting online
than being active in local party
politics.
Like a number of other Morgan supporters — including
Catsimatidis, who issued a
statement congratulating Reilly — Sherer said she is hopeful
the club and party can unify
following the election. “This
was a very nasty, horrible ﬁght
that we’ve had among fellow
Republicans and we want to
ﬁnd a way not to have this happen again,” Sherer said.
Reilly downplayed frictions
within the club and said he
doesn’t expect the outcome of
the election to result in lasting
divisions within the membership. “Our membership is over
600 people,” he said. “Of course
there are going to be members
who don’t like someone who
comes to speak or how something is done.”
“And if it was a referendum,
I’ve won,” he added.
A handful members of the
East River Democratic Club
braved freezing temperatures
to protest the Jan. 30 election
outside the Republican clubhouse. Patrick Bobilin, vice
president of the East River
Democratic Club, said he was
disappointed that more demonstrators didn’t turn up, given
his view of what the club’s failure to “accept some accountability” for the Proud Boys incident represents.
“I don’t think they want a
discourse,” Bobilin said. “I
think they want violence and
aggression and trolling to be
the de facto basis of politics in
this country. And now it’s in
Manhattan, and the absence
of more protestors says to me
that people are removed from
the reality of it.”
“Violence as an element of political discourse is something
we can now expect in Manhattan and on the comfortable
Upper East Side. I don’t know
where we go from here.”

He loves
solving
problems.
So he
gives.
William Donnell turned to
The New York Community Trust
to help him share his good fortune.
Together, we preserve parks, support the
LGBTQ community, and ﬁght poverty.
He also put The Trust in his will.
“Long after I’m gone, The Trust will keep
using my money to make New York better
for everyone.”

What do you love?
We can help with
your charitable giving.
(212) 686-0010 x363 or
giving@nyct-cfi.org
www.GiveTo.nyc

8

FEBRUARY 7-13,2019

The Spirit|Westsider westsidespirit.com

Voices

Write to us: To share your thoughts and comments go to
westsidespirit.com and click on submit a letter to the editor.

NO JUSTICE WITHOUT BAIL REFORM
EAST SIDE OBSERVER
BY ARLENE KAYATT

Bail’s out — The importance of
criminal justice reform hasn’t been
lost on the Upper East Side. What
seemed to me to be an impromptu
message — a Thursday email for a
Saturday event — resulted in a large
turnout at the Criminal Justice Panel held at the Church of Advent Hope
on East 87th St.. The church, in partnership with UES Assembly Member Dan Quart, hosted panelists
Marvin Mayﬁeld from JustLeadershipUSA and Erin L. George from
Citizen Action of New York. The discussion focused on the bail system
and the fact that it is poverty-based
— meaning that the poor who can’t
make bail go to jail while the rich
or those with the ability to borrow
get to go free. And all while there’s a

presumption of innocence. The push
for advocacy on the matter of bail
in particular and criminal justice
reform in general was reflected in
the personal story of Mr. Mayﬁeld,
who couldn’t make bail and was
subjected to gruesome experiences
in the jail system. His case was ultimately dismissed. Quart addressed
his experience as a legislator, and
the antiquated and prejudicial laws
which may hamstring judges from
exercising their discretion with respect to statutorily mandated fees.
The Assembly Member, who is on
the 18B Assigned Counsel Plan and
represents criminal defendants who
cannot afford an attorney, told of his
experiences in representing clients
who were victims of the system
because of their inability to either
make bail or pay fees. One audience
member, a prosecuting attorney in
the Bronx DA’s office, spoke to what

he said was “progressive” prosecuting. That gave rise to an exchange
with a man who identiﬁed himself
as from the Community Board and
who disagreed with the Bronx ADA
about the progressiveness of the
Bronx DA office. Game on.
Bragging rites — With the onslaught
of fast casual dining — if you want to
stand-up-and-eat or join unaffiliated
others at a communal table — it’s
comforting to know that there are
still some old-school restaurants
with, as Tevye would say, “tradition.” So it was smile-worthy to see
that Le Veau d’Or, the venerable
French restaurant on East 60th St,
now in its 82nd year, still serves such
classic French cuisine as vichysoisse,
grenouille, veal kidney, meringue
dessert, and enjoys its status in the
culinary world and the patronage of
famed authors and eminent regulars.
Le Veau d’Or shows it all off with two

stacks of books in its entrance-way
window. The stack (or pile) pays homage to its regulars who either wrote
about the restaurant or mentioned
Monsieur Robert in their tomes.
Monsieur Robert is Robert Treboux,
the inﬂuential chef/owner who took
over Le Veau d’Or in the mid-80s
and ran it until his death in 2012. His
daughter, Catherine Treboux, now
runs the restaurant. The books by
celebrated authors that bear witness
include Floyd Abrams’s “Soul of the
First Amendment,” Thomas Knight’s
“Eloise in Paris,” Oleg Cassini’s “In
My Own Fashion,” and A.E. Hotchner’s “Papa Hemingway.” Bragging
rights, too, for such departed regulars as Grace Kelly, Truman Capote,
and Liz Smith. A bygone time for
sure. Note to newbies: Remember to
write.
Uppity and out — If you name a restaurant “Inﬁrmary” where can you
go from there? How far can you rise?
Or fall? That’s my take on the recent
demise of a restaurant with that
name, which closed at the end of this
January, and not because of rent.

Inﬁrmary was meant to conjure up
the food and ﬂavor of New Orleans
— one of the of owners was a Louisiana native. Word was that Inﬁrmary
was the go-to place for the New Orleans Saints and for a Happy Hourish millennial crowd. But Inﬁrmary
was no sports bar — save for the tv
screens. And happy hour was happy
because, hey, there’s wine and beer
and cocktails. But not the prices.
Bar snacks, menu dishes were overpriced. Po’Boys, sandwiches, and
starters started at $20. The atmosphere was more UES upscale than
down-home New Orleans. And the
penchant for local organizations
and political clubs to have events at
Inﬁrmary didn’t bring in followers
or foodies. Service was poorly organized. And the “event” food, except
for hummus, was assuredly packaged, maybe frozen. But who can
blame the food and prices when the
name set the pall, along with ambiance and attitude. Too bad the owners an investors ignored the basics.
And for the record: No fun having
another empty storefront.

FRIENDSHIP ACROSS THE GENERATIONS
BY LORRAINE DUFFY MERKL

“Millennials,” muttered the man
behind me in line at Fairway on 86th
Street, questioning the work ethic of
the young cashier daring to go on her
break and leaving customers to wait
all of a minute for her replacement to
start ringing up. The impatience with
different age groups, of course, ﬂows
both ways. How many 20- and even
30-somethings roll their eyes when a
Boomer is baffled by technology, speciﬁcally social media?
I don’t get the us vs. them. I guess because I’ve always enjoyed the beneﬁts
of trans-generational relationships.
Aside from friends my own age, I’ve
had older companions, whose experience has enlightened me and younger
pals who’ve I’ve mentored — as well as
learned from.
My mother and daughter, both about
40 years apart from me on either
end of the spectrum, are my best examples; my 96-year-old has saved me
from myself with her strength, perseverance and wisdom more times than

I can count, while my 21-year-old has
kept me young by keeping me abreast
of what’s au courant, and her feistiness has often awakened in me the gogetter I used to be.
Hence, I read with interest “The Unexpected Connection,” the debut novel
by Upper East Side writer, Dena Levin,
about two women, separated by generations, who discover they are soul
sisters.
Manhattanites both, the unlikely
pair meet in West Palm Beach where
Michelle, a widow in her fifties, has
retired, and Vanessa, a millennial
professional, is vacationing solo to regroup after one of life’s double whammies: a breakup she initiated reluctantly with a job-loss chaser.
Michelle would like to help her new,
young pal redirect her life, but knows
a lecture or gratuitous advice in the
form of “and then there was the time”
stories are usually all it takes to push
people away. Instead, she asks Vanessa for her thoughts on her manuscript,
which chronicles Michelle’s dating escapades since the unanticipated loss

of her husband.
As the younger woman reads of her
mature companion’s transition from
grieving widow to mingling single,
we too learn about men like The Joker,
Another Bad Penny, and Mr. Rude, just
to name a few. (You won’t ﬁnd any of
this bunch on those Our Time commercials, where all the silver studs
are dashing, trim and apparently list
boating as a hobby.)
The book-within-a-book device offers not only comic relief, but insights
into Gray Dating, while sparing us
chapter after chapter of ﬂashbacks.
Michelle’s social bio becomes Vanessa’s bible for life as well as relationships. She takes away what most
people forget: heartache knows no
boundaries or, “Single is single,” as
Michelle likes to say.
The elder woman’s accounts also
seal their friendship deal, showing
Vanessa the synchronicity of events
both women share. Most importantly,
the younger of the two learns by her
new mentor’s example to focus on liking herself instead of blaming herself.

When it’s time to return to NYC,
Vanessa does so to a new position, and
attitude toward her former love. With
Michelle’s unofficial life coaching as
her resource, it’s now up to Vanessa to
implement all she’s learned.
We live in the ultimate melting pot.
So many of us are open to inclusion
when it comes to races, religions, and
nationalities, but stop short when it
comes to those in other age groups.
Most of what I know, for example,
about where I live on the Upper East
Side, is not from books or by taking a
tour, but because of my mother who
graduated from Yorkville High School,
now P.S. 151 Yorkville Community
School on East 88th Street.
Her short-term memory may be fading, but she has no trouble recalling
her youth when East 86th Street was
the heart of “Germantown” with the
bakeries, shops, and “new” beer gardens as the social hot spots. Then of
course, the post-WWII demolishment
of the Third Avenue El along with
brownstones and tenements that
made way for towering high-rises.

Photo via Amazon.com
Sound familiar? A stroll around the
UES, speciﬁcally across the street and
around the corner from my building,
shows charming old-world townhouses razed to make way for the new and
modern.
Including those of other generations
into your New York experience offers
an inkling of what’s coming, and when
it comes to our elders, an idea of whether or not we want to relive what’s past.
History and, as shown in “The Unexpected Connection,” relationships have
a way of repeating themselves.
Lorraine Duffy Merkl is the author of the
novels “Fat Chick” and “Bactk to Work She
Goes.”

SEX AFTER SIXTY
AGING
Hormonal and physical
issues and a “partner gap”
may present problems. But
the effects of aging are often
amenable to treatment
BY CAROL ANN RINZLER

Type “sex after sixty” into
your computer search bar and
up pop lots of virtual pages documenting who’s doing what and
how among the Golden Agers.
No surprise there, really. Desire is in the brain and sex is in
the body, but better meds and
better living have kept both in
tune for longer than previously
expected, sustaining what
was once considered a strictly
youthful sport well into Granny
Land.
There may, of course, be a few
bumps along the way. For men,
“hydraulics is the biggest impediment to sex later in life,”
says Dr. Walter Bortz, Professor of Medicine at Stanford
University School of Medicine,
past president of the American
Geriatrics Society and former
co-chair of the American Medical Association’s Task Force on
Aging. “For women, it’s opportunity and availability.”
True: Older men do experience hormonal and physical
issues that may interfere with
sexual performance, and older women do have problems
finding enough older men to
go around. But as Barbara
Chubak, Assistant Professor
of Urolgy at Mt. Sinai’s Icahn

School of Medicine, correctly
notes, women also “experience
biological changes that can
interfere with sexual arousal
response and pleasurable sexual activity, and both men and
women are troubled by unrealistic gendered expectations.”
The difference, of course, is
that the physical effects of aging are often amenable to treatment, which is why the National Social Life, Health, and
Aging Project (NSHAP) reports
that nearly one in seven men
age 57 to 85 take little blue pills
to improve sexual function.
What’s not treatable is the
significant gender difference
in longevity that results in the
“partner gap” certified when
AARP ran a Sex, Romance,
and Relationships Survey of
Midlife and Older Adults study
showing that only 32 percent of
women 70 or older have partners, compared with 59 percent
of men in the same age group.
It’s not for lack of interest on
the female side. The National
Commission on Aging (NCOA)
says that 62 percent of women
over 70 find sex “at least as
satisfying or more satisfying
physically” than it was in their
40s. The problem is fewer older
men, a difficult situation made
more so by cultural norms
which applaud guys who seek
younger partners but laugh if
you switch the genders. The
men prove their virility with
“trophy wives.” Older women?
They’re “cougars” going tooth
and claw after helpless “boy
toys.” What no one mentions
is that the boys might have

read Benjamin Franklin’s 1745
“Advice to a Young Man on the
Choice of a Mistress” urging
them to “Prefer old Women to
young ones ... the Pleasure of
corporal Enjoyment with an
old Woman is at least equal,
and frequently superior, every
Knack being by Practice capable of Improvement.” Besides,
unable to restrain himself,
Franklin, added: “They are so
grateful!!”
Today, their younger sisters
might be equally grateful for
the attention. Contrary to
common wisdom which sees
youngsters hopping in and out
of bed with abandon, recent
data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s
Youth Risk Behavior Survey
shows that from 1991 to 2017
the number of high-school
students having actual sex
dropped 14 percentage points.
There are similar stats among
the wider group of Americans
younger than 35 perhaps because as many as one in three
of them live with their parents,
putting an obvious crimp in
their romantic lives. And vice
versa, too: Adult children may
be less than pleased to see their
aging parents and grandparents as sexual beings.
In short, after 60, sex is as
complicated as ever. But it’s
worth the effort. As Bortz has
written: “If you stay interested,
stay healthy, stay off medications, and have a good mate,
then you can have good sex all
the way to the end of life.”
Even faithful trophy wives
and boy toys.

9

10

FEBRUARY 7-13,2019

The Spirit|Westsider westsidespirit.com

Feed Their Souls
& Fill Their Hearts

Discover the world around the corner.
Find community events, gallery openings,
book launches and much more: Go to nycnow.com

EDITOR’S PICK

Jan

31- Feb 24

SWEDISH COTTAGE PRESENTS YETI, SET, SNOW!

Join us any Sunday from 10:00am to
12:00pm for spiritual learning and
creative outlets for children of all ages.
Always free of charge!

children, youth & families
ministry

For more information contact us at:
1 West 29th Street / New York, New York 10001
212 686 2770 / MarbleChurch.org

Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre
Central Park
10:30 a.m. $8
centralparknyc.org
212-988-9093
An original story and production from the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre, Yeti, Set,
Snow! is the story of a young girl named Widget, and her friend, Twig, who encounter a yeti named
Pascetti on the ﬁrst snow day of the winter season.

Thu 7

Fri 8

Sat 9

KUNI MIKAMI

▲ ETHICS IN FILM:
THE BREAKFAST CLUB

► THE FRENETIC
FOOL: LARRY SEMON

NY Society for Ethical
Culture
2 West 64th St
6:30 p.m. $10
In Anna Ziegler’s smart,
disturbing, and engrossing
telling of her book “Actually” the
answer is unclear, and justice
uncertain. Come at 6:30 pm for
a reception and after the reading
participate in a discussion of the
ethical issues of the ﬁlm led by
Betsy Ungar. light refreshments.
ethical.nyc
212-874-5210

Symphony Space
2537 Broadway
11:00 a.m. $13
Join Toot Sweet Dick Van
Dyke as a down-on-his-luck
inventor as he turns his run
down car into the magical Chitty
Chitty Bang Bang and takes
his kids on a Truly Scrumptious
adventure. Screenplay by Roald
Dahl (Matilda, Charlie & The
Chocolate Factory) based on
the book by Ian Fleming.
symphonyspace.org
212-864-5400

92y
1395 Lexington Ave
Noon $29
Join Peter Laskowich in
an exploration of how both
the Giants and the Yankees
used New York City to make
themselves champions, by
exploring how the politics,
ballparks, rules of the game,
and the city itself were
instrumental to the pennants
the Giants won before their
move to San Francisco and the
championships the Yankees
continue to bring home.
92y.org
212-415-5500

COLUMBUS:
TOM HANSELL
ON AFTER COAL
Book Culture
450 Columbus Ave
7:00 p.m. Free
Join Book Culture on
Columbus for a reading and
discussion with Jill Santopolo
on her new novel, “More Than
Words.” Jill will be joined in
conversation by Tara Singh
Carlson.
bookculture.com
212-595-1962

westsidespirit.com
ACTIVITIES FOR THE FERTILE MIND

thoughtgallery.org
NEW YORK CITY

Wed 13
THE NEW YORK CITY
BALLET PRESENTS:
THE SLEEPING
BEAUTY

Larry Semon in Who’s Who on the Screen, 1920.
Photo: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Your neighborhood
news source

20 Lincoln Center Plaza
7:30 p.m. $35
A classic fairy tale was
transmuted into one of
the seminal works in the
international repertory when
Marius Petipa ﬁrst staged The
Sleeping Beauty, to a score by
Tschaikovsky that ranks among
the ﬁnest ever composed for a
ballet. Peter Martins paid tribute
to Petipa’s choreography in
creating his adaptation, which
blends the majesty of the
original with the velocity and
energy that remain a hallmark of
the Company.
nycballet.com
212-496-0600

Real Love in New York: Nagarjuna’s Wisdom on Love with Geshe
Michael Roach

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13TH, 7PM
Shakespeare & Co. UWS | 2020 Broadway | 212-738-0001 | shakeandco.com
Hear from investigative journalists Jean-Christophe Brisard and Lana Parshina, who spent years
negotiating with the Russians for access to conﬁdential Soviet ﬁles that reveal the truth behind the
hunt for Hitler’s body. Their new book includes eyewitness accounts and forensic science (free).

Just Announced | Wrongfully Accused—Mindhunters

SATURDAY, MARCH 23RD, 4PM
The Town Hall | 123 W. 43rd St. | 212-997-1003 | thetownhall.org
Former FBI agent John E. Douglas, who pioneered criminal proﬁling (he’s been called the “serial
killer whisperer”), spends an evening with Amanda Knox, who served nearly four years in jail in
Italy, and Damien Echols, who did 18 years as one of the West Memphis Three ($47).

For more information about lectures, readings and other
intellectually stimulating events throughout NYC,

sign up for the weekly Thought Gallery newsletter at thoughtgallery.org.

THE WOMAN WHO PIONEERED ABSTRACT PAINTING
Hilma af Klint was ahead of
her time, and of all the men who
followed in her footsteps
BY VAL CASTRONOVO

Until the last half of the last century,
Swedish painter Hilma af Klint (18621944) was pretty much on no one’s
radar. And that’s the way she wanted
it. After she veered into abstraction in
the early 1900s, she insisted that her
works be kept under wraps — seen by
very few, virtually hidden — until 20
years after her death. She was convinced they would not be understood.
Even more oddly, she directed that
two mathematical characters, + x, accompany her written legacy. Nearly all
her notebooks display the symbols on
the ﬁrst page. “All works,” she wrote
in a 1932 notebook, “should carry the
sign shown above.”
Okaaay.
Af Klint is internationally celebrated
today, but her oeuvre did not emerge
from the shadows until 1986, when
it was included in a groundbreaking
show, “The Spiritual in Art: Abstract
Painting 1890-1985,” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
It turns out af Klint, a woman, pioneered abstract painting. She took it

up years before Vasily Kandinsky, Piet
Mondrian and Kazimir Malevich. But
she did it on her own terms, in her own
way.
She produced more than 1,200 artworks during her career, including
conventional landscapes, portraits
and scientific illustrations that she
sold to support herself. The retrospective here is exhaustive, with more than
170 drawings, paintings and notebooks, the bulk from 1906-20, lining
the ramps. Prepare for a workout.
A spiritualist, with an appetite for
the occult and things that go bump in
the night, af Klint was part of a group
of women who styled themselves The
Five. They held séances and communicated with spirits. Hilma became
a medium, falling into trances and
channeling invisible powers, known
as “High Masters.” The spirits had
names: Amaliel, Ananda, Clemens, Esther, Georg, and Gregor. A 1933 notebook includes a sketch by the artist of
several sprites. They look like shooting stars.
Think of af Klint and her cohorts as
translators. They met regularly, kneeling around an altar and looking for the
spirits to move them, to guide them.
Automatic drawings — recordings of
their contacts — that the women made

during these sessions are on display.
In 1906, af Klint agreed to accept a
“great commission” from the Masters
to create a vast cycle, “The Paintings
for the Temple” (1906-15). She produced 193 works for the sanctuary,
though the holy place was never built.
Her pivot to abstraction stemmed
from a desire to understand the universe and how things work, cosmically
speaking. She was a truth-seeker, in
search of higher knowledge. The art
was informed by occult philosophies
like theosophy and the teachings of
Rudolf Steiner, as well as scientific
breakthroughs like Darwin’s theory
of evolution and the discovery of subatomic particles — things that cannot
be seen.
Visitors to the show can tap into
that spirit, beginning in the High
Gallery, where 10 monumental, ecstatic paintings known as “The Ten
Largest” (1907) are presented. This
series charts the stages of human
life — Childhood, Youth, Adulthood,
Old Age — and looks like it could have
been made today, or in the 1960s era of
trippin’ and ﬂower power. The works,
which were painted on the ﬂoor (think
Jackson Pollock, decades later), appear quite decorative, but they convey
mystical messages.

The Ten were created in an astonishingly short period of time, around
60 days. They are a blast of color and
free-ﬂoating forms; some of the forms
are familiar, some not at all. There are
flowers, tendrils, pinwheels, snails
— lots of snails — swirls, curlicues,
circles, overlapping circles that look
like Venn diagrams, circles that look
like eyeballs, and two bulbous yellow
shapes that are connected and look
like an hourglass (a hot-air balloon?
squash?).
And then there are the writings —
individual letters and unrecognizable
words sprinkled here and there, like
code. These paintings are a wild spill,
a window into altered states of consciousness.
Af Klint described the process of
painting The Ten this way: “It was not
the case that I was to blindly obey the
High Lords of the Mysteries but to imagine that they were always standing by
my side.” In 1916, she quit channeling
and assumed full control of her art.
Near the top of the ramp, the exhibit
achieves transcendence again with
the showcasing of “Altarpieces” (1915),
a trio of geometric works with triangles and gold orbs, the last leg of “The
Paintings for the Temple.” Conceived
to hang in the house of worship’s in-

ner sanctum, they radiate splendor
and otherworldliness.
Af Klint’s vision for the never-realized temple included a spiral staircase. The design was eerily similar
to Guggenheim museum co-founder
Hilla Rebay’s vision for the spiral
monolith on Fifth Avenue, designed by
Frank Lloyd Wright. But the similarities were purely coincidental, curator
Tracey Bashkoff writes in the catalog.
It is no coincidence, however, that
the ever-graceful ediﬁce, founded as
a “temple of spirit” to house non-objective art, is now hosting an exhibit
by a pioneer of non-objective art, one
who was enamored of the spiral motif
(remember the snails?). As Bashkoff
writes, “The spiral, symbol of evolution, progress, and growth, and linked
to forces of nature, embodies and
houses af Klint’s visions.”

IF YOU GO
What: Hilma af Klint:
Paintings for the Future
Where: Solomon R.
Guggenheim Museum
1071 Fifth Avenue, New York
When: Through April 23
www.guggenheim.org

FEBRUARY 7-13,2019

13

The Spirit|Westsider westsidespirit.com

Your Neighborhood News Source

BEYOND BROADWAY - WEST SIDE
The #1 online community for NYC theater:

www.show-score.com

NOW PLAYING IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD
FROM $30

FROM $41

FROM $20

THE LIGHT

THAT PHYSICS SHOW

NASSIM

27 REVIEWS IN PREVIEWS

128 REVIEWS ENDS MAY 25

95 REVIEWS ENDS APR 20





85



78

80

On what should be one of the happiest days of a couple’s
lives, ground-shifting accusations from the past resurface.

Longtime professional physics demonstrator David Maiullo
shares his amazing “magic tricks” from the world of science.

“Nassim” explores the power of language to unite us. No
rehearsals. A different guest actor at every performance. A
sealed envelope.

ROBERT W. WILSON MCC THEATER SPACE - 511 W 52ND ST

THE PLAYROOM THEATER - 151 W 46TH ST

CITY CENTER - 131 W 55TH ST

WHAT’S TRENDING ACROSS NYC

COMING SOON

FROM $20

FROM $17

RAP
GUIDE TO CLIMATE CHAOS
76 REVIEWS ENDS FEB 24

GOOD FRIDAY
PREVIEWS START FEB 11



The Flea Theater presents this New York premiere addressing #metoo
feminism at the intersection of gun and sexual violence.

81

THE FLEA THEATER - 20 THOMAS ST

In this theatrical hip-hop manifesto, Baba Brinkman breaks down the
politics, economics, and science of global warming.

FROM $59

SOHO PLAYHOUSE - 15 VANDAM ST

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF
PREVIEWS START FEB 11

FROM $29

THE TRIAL OF THE CATONSVILLE NINE

The hit staging of the classic musical reopens uptown on 42nd St.
Performed in Yiddish (with supertitles). Directed by Joel Grey.

46 REVIEWS JUST OPENED


STAGE 42 - 422 W 42ND ST

80
FROM $30

SPACEMAN
PREVIEWS START FEB 14

Transport Group has re-imagined this provocative piece of theater created from the actual court transcripts of the Catonsville Nine trial.
ABRONS ARTS CENTER - 466 GRAND ST

This drama about a woman’s solo journey to Mars explores the depths of
mankind’s last true frontiers: outer space and a grieving heart.

FROM $99

THE WILD PROJECT - 195 E 3RD ST

MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG
80 REVIEWS IN PREVIEWS


FROM $25

SURELY
GOODNESS AND MERCY
PREVIEWS START FEB 26

80

Content provided by

Fiasco brings their imaginative, stripped-down aesthetic to Sondheim’s
musical about about a trio of showbiz friends.

In an underfunded public school in Newark, a bible-toting boy with a
photographic memory befriends the cantankerous old lunch lady.

THE HAROLD AND MIRIAM STEINBERG CENTER - 111 W 46ST ST

THEATRE ROW - 410 W 42ND ST
KEY:

14

FEBRUARY 7-13,2019

The Spirit|Westsider westsidespirit.com

RESTAURANT INSPECTION RATINGS
JAN 23 - 29, 2018
The following listings were collected from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s website
and include the most recent inspection and grade reports listed. We have included every restaurant
listed during this time within the zip codes of our neighborhoods. Some reports list numbers with their
explanations; these are the number of violation points a restaurant has received. To see more information
on restaurant grades, visit www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/services/restaurant-inspection.shtml.
Raenu Thai

844 Amsterdam Ave

A

Cafe86

2350 Broadway

Grade Pending (26)
Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Food not cooled by an
approved method whereby the internal product temperature is reduced
from 140º F to 70º F or less within 2 hours, and from 70º F to 41º F
or less within 4 additional hours. Evidence of mice or live mice present
in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Live roaches present in facility’s
food and/or non-food areas.

The Gin Mill

442 Amsterdam Ave

A

George Keeley

485 Amsterdam Ave

A

Ashoka

489 Columbus Ave

Grade Pending (34)
Food not cooled by an approved method whereby the internal product
temperature is reduced from 140º F to 70º F or less within 2 hours,
and from 70º F to 41º F or less within 4 additional hours. Food
Protection Certiﬁcate not held by supervisor of food operations. Live
roaches present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas.

BALLOT
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
But if multiple Democrats,
each trying to out-progressive
the other, fall below, say, a 10
percent threshold, they could
effectively cancel each other
out, creating a path to victory
for Queens City Council Member Eric Ulrich, a moderate,
anti-Trump Republican.
“I will be Bill de Blasio’s worst
nightmare — the last person
he’d ever want to see as public
advocate,” Ulrich vowed in an
interview. As of the Jan. 25 ﬁling, he’d raised $100,462 for his
campaign.
“If Ulrich turns out his Queens
base and wins Staten Island in a
low-turnout race, he’s a player
who can emerge from this mess
and win,” said Hank Sheinkopf,
a Democratic consultant who
has worked on the campaigns
of Bill Clinton, Eliot Spitzer and
Mike Bloomberg.
The job, which is the first in
line to succeed the mayor, is
now vacant because, in typical
fashion, the last public advocate, Letitia James, resigned
on Jan. 1 after her election last
year as state attorney general.
She succeeded another ambitious pol, de Blasio, who was
elected as advocate in 2009
and parlayed the post into a
successful mayoral run in 2013.
Mark Green had no such luck.
In 2001, he’d also weaponized
the position in a bid for Gracie
Mansion, but was bested by
Mike Bloomberg.
Like all special elections,
which are nonpartisan, the
candidates cannot run on existing party lines. Instead, they
have to mint their own unique
party labels, which can be
colorful, off-beat or attentiongrabbing.
Whoever wins will only hold
the post till Dec. 31 and will be
a potential lame duck. Democratic and GOP primaries will be
held in September, and on Nov.
5, the victors will square off in
the general election to fill the
rest of James’ unexpired term,
which runs through 2021.
Despite the prospect of a
short 10-month reign, aspirants are locked in a spirited,
big-bucks free-for-all — perhaps the ﬁrst citywide race in
New York history in which rap
sheets for low-grade offenses
are being leveraged to score
political points with liberal
constituents.

sent to candidates seeking its
endorsement: “Have you ever
been arrested?” it asked.
Twice, replied ex-City Council
Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito,
the East Harlem Democrat and
senior adviser for the Latino
Victory Fund who is running
on the “Fix the MTA” ticket.
She leads the pack in fundraising with $345,867 in contributions and would be the first
Latina to hold citywide office.
“Please explain why and the
outcome of arrest,” the club
asked.
Turns out, Mark-Viverito was
busted in Sept. 2017 for blocking traffic in front of Trump
Tower on Fifth Avenue during
a protest over federal immigration policies. Then last October, she joined a Washington
D.C. sit-in during conﬁrmation
hearings for Supreme Court
Justice Brett Kavanaugh and
was pinched a second time.
Her twin arrests, however,
are dwarfed by Washington
Heights City Council Member
Ydanis Rodriguez, chair of the
Council Transportation Committee, who is running on the
“United for Immigrants” line
and has raised $132,736 for his
campaign as of Jan. 25.
By his own reckoning, Rodriguez has been locked up
“around 10 times” over a 30year period, starting six years
after he came to the city as an
immigrant from the Dominican Republic in 1983, he recalled in a Nov. 4 interview.
His signature moment came
on the night of Nov. 15, 2011
when cops forcibly cleared
Zuccotti Park of Occupy Wall
Street protesters. Knocked to
the ground, roughed up and
thrown into a police van, he
was detained for three hours
for disorderly conduct and
resisting arrest, charges that
were later voided.
The ordeal gave Rodriguez a
distinction no rival candidate
can match: He was featured in
Time Magazine’s coverage of
its 2011 Person of the Year, “The
Protester.”
“Listen, I’ve been in this ﬁght
as long as I can remember, and
that will always be a part of my
life,” he said. Win or lose, “I’ll
continue to use the beautiful,
peaceful means of civil disobedience to seek social justice and
march for our rights,” Rodriguez added.
So who’s racked up the most
arrests? It is a mantle claimed
by three-term Brooklyn City
Council Member Jumaane Williams, a former tenant activist
who ran a strong, if ultimately
unsuccessful, race for lieutenant governor last year and has
collected $194,780 thus far in
his current campaign.

Asked by activists at the Jim
Owles Club if he had ever been
arrested, Williams, whose ballot line is the “People’s Voice,”
answered, “Yes, more than any
other elected official in New
York.”
And he linked to pictures
depicting him handcuffed by
police, his body pressed down
against the hood of a car, and
to accounts of his brushes with
the law at Trump Tower, Occupy Wall Street, the West Indian Day Parade, Gov. Andrew
Cuomo’s office, and at multiple
protests against stop-andfrisk, school closings, CUNY
tuition hikes, federal deportation drives and immigration
laws in Arizona.
Unsurprisingly, it was Williams who ultimately won the
endorsement of Jim Owles. He
also scored backing from the
Four Freedoms Democratic
Club on the Upper East Side.
But in a measure of how the
public advocate’s race has so
completely riven the city’s progressive clubhouses, two other
influential East Side clubs
voted to support two rival candidates:
While the East River Democratic Club endorsed attorney
Dawn Smalls, a partner at Boies
Schiller Flexner who is vying
on the “No More Delays” ticket,
the Lexington Democratic Club
backed Queens State Assembly
Member Ron Kim, who created
the “No Amazon” line.
Meanwhile, on the same week
when Jim Owles threw its
weight behind Williams, the
city’s two other LGBT political
strongholds also split their endorsements, with the Lambda
Independent Democrats of
Brooklyn rallying behind MarkViverito.
At the same time, the Stonewall Democratic Club said it
was supporting Assembly
Member Danny O’Donnell, who
represents the Upper West Side
and Morningside Heights and
is the only openly gay candidate in the race.
A self-proclaimed “opinionated loud mouth,” O’Donnell, the
older brother of Rosie O’Donnell,
is best known for a breakthrough piece of legislation, the
Marriage Equality Act permitting same-sex unions, which he
steered into law in 2011.
He lives on West 111th Street
and had raised $99,530 for his
“Equality for All” ticket as of the
most recent campaign ﬁling.
“I haven’t been arrested —
I’m the guy they call to get out
of jail when other people get
arrested,” said O’Donnell, who
is also an attorney who had
worked as a public defender.
invreporter@strausnews.com

FEBRUARY 7-13,2019

15

The Spirit|Westsider westsidespirit.com

TRAFFIC JAM ON THE BALLOT
An unwieldy 17 candidates â&#x20AC;&#x201D; yes, you read that right, 17! â&#x20AC;&#x201D; are running for Public
Advocate. The top 10 hopefuls, based on the amount they raised as of Jan. 25.

NEIGHBORHOODâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S BEST
To place an ad in this directory, Call Douglas at 212-868-0190 ext. 352.

EDUCATION

DINING
Former City Council
Speaker Melissa
Mark-Viverito of
East Harlem, a
Democrat running
on the Fix the
MTA ticket, raised
$345,867. Photo:
Mark-Viverito
campaign Twitter
account. Â

Bronx state
Assembly Member
and vice chair of the
Democratic National
Committee Michael
Blake, running
on the For the
People line, raised
$324,039.Â Photo:
Blake campaign
Twitter account.

Attorney and law
partner Dawn
Smalls, running
on the No More
Delays ticket, raised
$243,754.Â Photo:
Smalls campaign
Twitter account.

Brooklyn City
Council Member
and former 2018
candidate for
lieutenant governor
Jumaane Williams,
a Democrat running
on the Peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
Voice ticket, raised
$194,780. Photo:
Williams campaign
Twitter account.

Washington
Heights City
Council Member
Ydanis Rodriguez, a
Democrat running
on the United for
Immigrants ticket,
raised $132,736.
Photo: Rodriguez
campaign Twitter
account.

Queens City Council
Member Eric Ulrich,
a Republican
running on the
Common Sense
Party line, raised
$100,462. Photo:
Ulrich campaign
Twitter account.Â

Training
Walking
Jogging
Overnight
Daycare
Grooming

*Valid for new
clients only.
Holiday rates
apply.

Michael McGovern

Licensed Mortgage Loan Originator
NMLS# 114132 - NY, FL
Call us today

212-696-8364

NNDHPWFSO!QSVEFOUJBMCDPNt$BMM%JSFDU

REAL ESTATE

REAL ESTATE

KARPOFF
AFFILIATES
Senior Move Manager
Real Estate Broker

Upper West Side
and Morningside
Heights Assembly
Member Danny
Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Donnell, a
Democrat running
on the Equality for
All ticket, raised
$99,530. Photo:
Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;DonnellÂ campaign
Twitter account.

DO YOU WANT TO DISCOVER
THE VALUE OF YOUR HOME?
Then please give us a call ...
Â&#x2021;5HVLGHQWLDO5HDO(VWDWH%URNHUV2YHU<HDUV
Â&#x2021;6SHFLDOL]LQJLQ&RRSV&RQGRV7RZQKRXVHV

Allow us to share our valuable knowledge and experience
Whether Selling or Purchasing or just curious, it will be our pleasure
to meet and consult and help you make the right decision.
Phyllis Gallaway
6U*OREDO5($GYLVRU$VVRF%URNHU
3K\OOLVJDOODZD\#VRWKHE\VKRPHVFRP

917-769-7079

Laura Gruber
*OREDO5($GYLVRU$VVRF%URNHU
/DXUDJUXEHU#VRWKHE\VKRPHVFRP

917-912-2023

Sothebyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s International Realty

16

FEBRUARY 7-13,2019

The Spirit|Westsider westsidespirit.com

WEST SIDE SIBLINGS SING THEIR WAY TO THE TOP
MUSIC
The Bailens, who grew up
in a musical household, are
winning fans with their
heartfelt sound
BY MICHELLE NAIM

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s always nice to see siblings
who actually get along. But
Daniel, David and Julia Bailen
are doing much more than that.
Instead of pulling each otherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
hair out, the Bailens, who have
been singing since they were in
diapers, brought their talents
together in 2014 to form the
Bailen band. Their refreshing
three-part harmonies, folky
style and original songs have
them on a dream trajectory.
They sold out the Bowery Ballroom last month and begin a
three-month tour of the U.S. on
February 20th. But before the
rest of the country sees them,
Bailen, accompanied by their
parents, have a show February
7th at their childhood middle
school, Congregation Rodeph
Sholom on the Upper West Side.
Julia, 22, is on vocals and
acoustic guitar. Twins Daniel and David, 27, also sing
and handle bass (Daniel) and
drums (David). Their childhood friend, Pierre Piscitelli,
their â&#x20AC;&#x153;brother from another
mother,â&#x20AC;? as Daniel puts it, plays
keyboards.
Although the bandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s success

Bailen onstage during their sold-out show last month at Bowery Ballroom. Photo: Courtesy of Toby Tenenbaum
is solely their own, they come
from musical blood. Their parents, Eliot Bailen and Susan
Rotholz, are freelance musicians who taught at Columbia
University and the Manhattan School of Music while the
siblings were growing up. The
Bailenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s childhood home was
a regular stop sophisticated
instrumentalists, making the
home â&#x20AC;&#x153;a cacophony of sounds,â&#x20AC;?
said Daniel. He recalled one

time when he had a friend
over and â&#x20AC;&#x153;[he] went to use the
bathroom and there was literally a violinist practicing in the
bathroom. So thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the house
we grew up in.â&#x20AC;? For the Bailen
kids, a career in music seemed
like the most normal thing in
the world.
Growing up, the Bailens lived
in Morningside Heights, and
Daniel spoke fondly of life on the
Upper West Side. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a special
place to be,â&#x20AC;? Daniel said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;it was
a wonderful place to grow up.â&#x20AC;?
In fact, the cover of the bandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
debut record was shot in front
of The Hungarian Pastry Shop,
on Amsterdam Avenue, which is
their favorite spot to write song
lyrics. â&#x20AC;&#x153;A lot of amazing authors
and writers go there and all the
books that have been written
there are on the wall.â&#x20AC;?
Daniel said his little sister,

Julia, who went to Laguardia
High School of Music & Art and
Performing Arts on the Upper
West Side, is the leader of the
band. â&#x20AC;&#x153;She just knows whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
good and bad, sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll let you
know.â&#x20AC;?
Although the siblings get
along for the most part, Daniel said they all have strong
personalities that can clash at
times. He described his drumplaying twin brother, David,
as â&#x20AC;&#x153;super organized and very
detail oriented ... If thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a
tour, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m like, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Yeah weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re just
driving twenty hours.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; [For David,] all the things that could
go wrong are going wrong in
his head and heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s planning
for them ... If Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m working on
a tune, [it] will be a complete
mess and David will come organize it.â&#x20AC;? He also recognizes that
their â&#x20AC;&#x153;little sis,â&#x20AC;? Julia, is â&#x20AC;&#x153;just

Discover the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s best
walk-in bathtub from
5 Reasons American Standard
Walk-In Tubs are Your Best Choice
1
2
3

Includes FREE American StandardRight Height Toilet

Limited Time Offer! Call Today!

4

888-609-0248

5

Receive a free American Standard Cadet toilet with full installation of a Liberation Walk-In Bath, Liberation
Shower, or Deluxe Shower. Offer valid only while supplies last. Limit one per household. Must be first time
purchaser. See www.walkintubs.americanstandard-us.com for other restrictions and for licensing, warranty,
and company information. CSLB B982796; Suffolk NY:55431H; NYC:HIC#2022748-DCA. Safety Tubs Co.
LLC does not sell in Nassau NY, Westchester NY, Putnam NY, Rockland NY.

Backed by American Standardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
140 years of experience
$
Ultra low entry for easy
entering and exiting
Patented Quick DrainÂŽ
fast water removal system
Lifetime Warranty on the bath AND
installation, INCLUDING labor backed
by American Standard
44 Hydrotherapy jets for an
invigorating massage

1,50

SAVING0S

FREE IN-HOME
EVALUATION!

Julia Bailen is the leader of the band, said big brother Daniel.
Photo: Courtesy of Toby Tenenbaum

way cooler than us.â&#x20AC;?
The twins began writing
songs together when they
were around 5. Their ďŹ rst composition was called â&#x20AC;&#x153;Fire in the
Kitchen.â&#x20AC;? Later, between the
ages of 8 and 12, they started
singing professionally in the
Metropolitan Opera. In high
school, Daniel said, that he
and David â&#x20AC;&#x153;would go to Emmanuel Baptist Church [in
Brooklyn] which is mostly a
Haitian community, [a] beautiful place, where amazing music is created. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gospel music.
Every Sunday we would go
down there and play bass and
drums.â&#x20AC;?
The twins formed the Bailen
Brothers in high school, and
promised Julia she could join
once she got her braces removed. Then, when the band
began to get serious in 2015,
they started performing with
their sister. In 2016, they began
working with Sofar Sounds,
which arranges concerts in
living rooms, retail shops and
other small settings. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I know
that if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve heard about us
itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s because youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve heard us
live,â&#x20AC;? said Daniel. â&#x20AC;&#x153;And youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve
probably heard us in a really
intimate environment. I know
that our followers ... are all people weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve met and not [people]
who stumbled upon us on Instagram or ... Spotify, where everything is so quick and moves
so fast. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s something that
is so much more valuable than
discovering us on a playlist. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
in the ďŹ&#x201A;esh.â&#x20AC;?

Daniel called Bailenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s musical
inďŹ&#x201A;uences â&#x20AC;&#x153;a very wide range
... Appalachian folk ... classical
music ... [we sang] New York
gospel music growing up ...
New York City had a huge inďŹ&#x201A;uence on the eclectic sound that
we have.â&#x20AC;?
The bandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sold-out Bowery
Ballroom show (opened by Elliott Skinner) included a poignant moment when Daniel
introduced a new song, called
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Eyelashes.â&#x20AC;? Daniel told a story
of a girl, â&#x20AC;&#x153;She was our age. She
grew up on the Lebanese border during the second Lebanon
War in the 90s. She was a child
in the 90s.â&#x20AC;? He said that she
told him â&#x20AC;&#x153;Her mom was worried because she kept pulling
out her eyelashes. So she asked
â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Why do you keep pulling on
your eyelashes?â&#x20AC;&#x2122; And she said
â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;because I want to make wishes.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; So her mom asked â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;What
are you wishing for?â&#x20AC;&#x2122; And she
said: â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m wishing for the war
to end.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; I thought that was a really beautiful story so I wrote a
song about it.â&#x20AC;?
Towards the end of the performance, the band announced
the midnight release of their
ďŹ rst single, â&#x20AC;&#x153;I Was Wrong.â&#x20AC;? As
Daniel explained the idea behind the song: â&#x20AC;&#x153;When thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a
problem, you never see anyone
stepping back and saying â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Maybe thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s something Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m doing
thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s triggering this or starting the problem.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; And itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s never
right or wrong.â&#x20AC;? True enough.
But Bailen is getting it right.
Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no doubt about that.

SINGING WITH STRANGERS
NIGHTLIFE
There’s music everywhere
in Manhattan, and you can
join in
BY MEREDITH KURZ

There are no neon lights and
the red door tucked in a corner
is nondescript. “If you reach a
place with Italian lights overhead, you’ve gone too far,” are
a stranger’s vague directions.
With a handful of steps down
from the sidewalk, I bend down
to peer in, make sure it’s the
right spot, that they’re open
on a Sunday at 5:30. In the dim
interior I see a few Christmas
lights and then the old upright
piano.
Behind the bar, Joseph O’Neill
is on his eighth sticky note,
scrawling out “must go” places
in the Village for two women
from Wales who are enjoying
‘Tea Time,’ in other words, a
couple of beers, no glasses,
please. O’Neill knows this
neighborhood like he knows
all the lyrics to “Don’t Rain on
my Parade.” He’s giving them
City Gold which you won’t ﬁnd
online. As I step up to the bar,
he’s on pizza joints (only three
worth mentioning) giving arcane details like, “Look for an
old guy with a scruffy beard. If
he isn’t there, don’t order”.
There are no 60” monitors
over the bar at Marie’s Crisis.
A deceased TV that must have
witnessed the moon landing is
tucked under the rafters. When
I tell Joseph I called the phone
number to get a schedule he
waves his hand. “That was disconnected ten years ago.”
“They don’t exist anymore,”
people tell me when hunting
for a cozy neighborhood piano
bar. “Most of them are gone,”
O’Neill shrugs, almost agree-

ing. “This is the best one in the
city and we’re able to stay because the bar owner also owns
the building.” This gem’s hidden in plain sight at 59 Grove
Street. Sure it’s given high
stars for the late night crowd,
but we’re enjoying an early evening weekend very happy hour.
Pianist Kenney Green, who’s
also Artistic Director for the
Depot Theater, arrives. He sits
down and pulls out an iPad and
tells me he doesn’t miss the
three suitcases of sheet music
he used to lug around. People
start to straggle in, order
drinks, and you can tell they
have their own stool, their spot
around the piano.
This crowd knows one another but pull me into their circle,
into the magic. Taking a seat
on a cracked red vinyl stool, I
toss a dollar into the ﬁsh bowl.
Another woman reaches over
me and drops in two ﬁvers. “My
husband’s working next door,”
she says. “He’s a trumpeter.”
Turns out she plays piano and
sings as well. A few others belly
up to the piano, and I realize
this is where musicians come
to sing.
Rubbing elbows with real
musicians, trying out my rusty
voice is a throat constricting,
eye-misting treat. We work
our way through “I Believe
In You” (To see the cool clear,
eyes of a seeker of wisdom and
truth), “Embraceable You”
(Just one look at you, my heart
grew tipsy in me. You and you
alone bring out the gypsy in
me), “American in Paris,” “‘S
Wonderful,” Gershwin’s “Let’s
Call the Whole Thing Off” (You
say potato ...) and Cole Porter’s
“I’ve Got You Under My Skin” to
warm up.
“People meet here, fall in love,
and some get married,” O’Neill
says. With songs like these, in
a place like this, I can see why.

There are other places to
sing with strangers. The Children’s Museum of Manhattan
has four weekly “Move and
Groove” sing alongs. For seniors, the Goddard Riverside
Community Center on the Upper West Side holds a free sing
along every fourth Friday of
the month. Symphony Space,
also on the UWS, offers movie
sing-alongs, and a calendar
of Karaoke events at their Bar
Thalia around the corner.
My neighborhood forum
offered their favorites; Iris
G. likes the sing along of oldies at the Stephen Wise Free
Synagogue; Diane K. enjoys
the Flying Ivories who play
Manhattan-wide; Paul M. and
others suggests Sid’s Gold,
where Shelly Watson offers
sing-alongs on the second
Tuesday of every month. There
are choruses and choirs all
over town, and I enjoyed one
semester of singing with the
Riverside Church’s Inspiration
Choir, whose director, Nedra
Olds-Neal, the best director I’ve
ever sung under, has produced
with SONY and Arista Records.
As for romance and Marie’s
Crisis, I learn Kenney Green
is filling in for Adam Tilford,
his husband, who he met here.
Kenney plays Wednesday and
Friday nights from 9:30 p.m. to
4 a.m,, so getting to hear him
in the early hours is a treat for
me. I know I’ll return to sing
with Adam.
If you aren’t a late night person and you’re looking for that
place you thought didn’t exist
anymore in Manhattan, go to
Marie’s Crisis. You don’t have
to go at midnight, although
they have a rollicking good
time then. You may start singing with strangers, who become acquaintances, and then?
On this day at this time this is
a secret gem for New Yorkers.

Xavier’s current policies and
procedures regarding the prevention of abuse and harassment. In 2012, for example, the
school hired T&M Protection
Resources, a private security,
intelligence and investigations company, to revise procedures and policies and help
implement yearly training for
the faculty and the students.
An ombudsman oversees policies, training and investigations into abuse, harassment
and bullying.
The letter, and a follow-up
with a link to the list and
information for survivors
of abuse, prompted a broad
spectrum of reactions from
the Xavier community.
“There was a lot of support
for Xavier. There was gratitude for the letter, gratitude
for confronting it honestly,”
Raslowsky said. “In some cases there was great distrust of
the church.”
R a slowsk y sa id ma ny
alumni had trouble coming
to terms with the inclusion
on the province’s list of John
Garvey, who was at the school
for more than a decade.
“Many of the other guys
were older or were here briefly. They [the alumni] knew
John. For those folks, John did
some very good work and was
well loved by many,” he said.
“For many of those folks they
begin to question their relationship, they question their
experience, they’re hurt for
John, they’re hurt for victims.

There are a lot of complications there, but honest complications.”
The release of the list
prompted one survivor of
abuse a chance to share his
story with Xavier leadership.
“I received one call from an
alum who was the victim of
abuse in 1961 by a lay person.
We had a good conversation
and he was relieved to tell his
story,” Raslowsky said. “The
person who committed the
abuse is dead and has been for
over ten years, and had been at
Xavier for three years in that
period.”
Following the publication
of the list, Xavier hosted a forum at the school as well as
a conference call for alumni
and parents to voice their
thoughts and feelings.
“It was very solemn; it was
apparent those emotions were
in that room, from dismay and
disappointment to anger and
frustration,” said Tom Weatherall, a 1986 Xavier graduate,
who attended the forum. “I
felt like there was compassion
for the victims.”
Weatherall said Xavier was
the place where he accepted
his Catholic faith and felt that
it was his own, rather than
something given to him by his
parents. So when the abuse
crisis become apparent in the
early 2000s, Weatherall said
he felt anger, disgust and deep
sadness, and frustration with
the church for the broader hierarchy that covered up the
abuse.
For him, the province’s release of the list and Xavier’s
actions have been a welcome

start toward healing. “I appreciated [Raslowsky’s] and the
Xavier community’s openness
and willingness towards transparency,” Weatherall said.
Paul Scariano, a 1990 graduate who has two sons enrolled
in Xavier was proud and comforted by the way the school’s
leadership handled the news.
“My boys are aware of things.
They talked about it in their
religion class and were asked
if they wanted to talk about
anything,” said Scariano,
who is also a member of the
school’s board of trustee’s.
“The administration got to
the students in the right way.”
Scariano said Xavier had
also been a place where he
fit in well, and most others
fit in well, and he thinks the
school’s culture continues to
be a place that values communication and openness with
students.
“ Ever yone w ishes t he
church was honest about it in
the beginning. Now, I don’t
know what else you can do but
be honest about it,” he said.
For the church to move forward, Raslowsky said it needs
to continue to be transparent
and open about the mistakes
it has made along the way.
“Here at Xavier we’re a place
where we give voice to different people. Power comes from
that ... to raise questions about
how the church is the best
church it can be in terms of
power and voice and authority
and leadership,” he said. “We
are one very little part of the
worldwide church, but we get
it right, hopefully it inspires
other people to get it right.”

In a statement, Regis High School said “No abuse is acceptable, and we are horriﬁed and distressed by
each one of these allegations. All victims of sexual abuse are in our prayers.”Photo: Emily Mason

FEBRUARY 7-13,2019

19

The Spirit|Westsider westsidespirit.com

Don’t go out into the cold.
GET YOUR LOCAL NEWS DELIVERED
It’s your neighborhood. It’s your news.
And now your personal copy is delivered
directly to your mailbox every week!

THE M
NEW ET'S
MODE

CITYAR RNISM
TS, P.2
>
4

2

0 1 6
OTT
Y
AWA

RDS

His
Eminence Cardinal
Timothy M. Dolan

Dr. Maura D. Frank
Gustavo Goncalves

Just $49

James Grant
Paul Gunther

Harris Healy

Susan H
enshaw Jones

Mallory Spain
Dr. David Thomas

CELEBR
BEST OF ATTHING THE
EAST SIDE E UPPER
Bett
y Cooper Wallerstein

to hav e is the sixthin the city.
past thre been hit by a person
car in the
to The ee days alone.
least 20New York Tim According
cyclists pedestrians es, at
have bee
and thr
accidents
ee
n kill
more tha so far this ed in traffic
VOL. 2,
yea
n
ISSUE
been inju 900 pedest r, and
08
rians hav
It’s demred.
e
of victim oralizing. If
fam
s,
ilies
heighten a devoted
mayor and
a dent in ed awarenes
the proble s can’t ma
Amid the
ke
m,
wh
at can?
New Yor carnage,
Immedia kers once agathough,
hit, bys tely after Da in rallied.
A CASI
group tanders ran to uplaise was
MANH NO IN
managof them, workin try to help.
in hopesed to ﬂip the carg together, A < BUSI ATTAN?
of
NESS,
on
res
its
cuing
Unfor
sid
P.16
She wa tunately, it didDauplaise. e,
Bellevues pronounced n’t work.
The a short wh dead at
citizensefforts of our ile later.
fell
to
hearten save a str ow
us, despit anger sho
recklessn
uld
e
who con ess of a danthe continued
a place tinue to makegerous few
THE SE
of traged
our street
y.
OFsOU COND DISG

Downt
owner
Our T

12

ake

SHELTER HOMELES RACE
S
RS

First,
obvious: let’s start wit
condition h the
city’s hom
s inside
thi
disgrace. eless shelte
rs are as
A ser
one mo ies of terrible
(includinre horrible tha crimes,
month g the killing n the last
of
ear
lier this
daugh a woman
has higters in Statenand her two
hlighted
Island),
living con
the
the ma ditions for shameful
cities inrgins of one ofpeople at
Blasio, the world. Ma the richest
wh
yor
o
has bee
Bill de
his app
from theroach to homn halting in
has ﬁnal beginning elessness
proble ly begun to of his term,
from thim, but years ofaddress the
others, s administra neglect,
tion and
will take
But
years to
correct.
recent none of that exc
office grandstanding uses the
appareof Gov. Andrew by the
Cuomo,
he can’tntly sees no iss
who
In the try to belittl ue on which
attempt governor’s late the mayor.
officials at a hit job, est
sta
compla
then pro
ined te
Post, abomptly to the to the city,
homele ut a gang New York
alleged ss shelter, purape at a city
VOL. 77
had tim event before blicizing the
, ISSUE
pol
e
04
As it turto investigate ice even
ned out,
it.
never hap
the
officials pened, infuriaincident
media hitwho called it ting city
a
”
“po
aim
the mayor
ed at em litical
. More cha
barrassin
counter-c
rges and g
THfolElow
the me harges
Dicken antimeA
, of cou ed. In
Tditrse
men, wosian livingR
OionF, the
con
in New men D
kidsIM s for
Yor andEN
Here’s k goe
s on. in shelters
CITY
ARTS,
leadershi hoping tha
t
som
P.2any
eday our
as intere p in Alb
0
as it is in sted in helpinwill become
back fro agains scoring pol g them
t sit
itical poi
17 fee m FDR Drour
ive byting mayor. nts
t
16 to
out of and raise

Accor
DOB, Coding to sta
STREETORY OF OU
tis
R
agency nEd report tics provid
S
ed by
over 20 in 2015, a ed 343 shutoff
the
The
40
Ruby
BY DAN
trend 14’s 67 shu 0 percent s to the
New Yorworst and the
IEL FIT
ey on Mak has been
ap
toffs.
increa
ZSIMM
takeo
An
So far pears to be
Monday k were both best of
ONS
ut tha spending
mid-d
in 2016
increa d the upwa se
on displa
mo
mo
issert
n
acc
mid
a
the
sin
re
rd
docto
ording
y
town. rning on 36th
mong eve
re ha
ation
is worki
Street in
ng at lea , and her ne rate stude
“Since to the DO ve been 157 n more:
Ca
rol
“A lot
nt
B.
Da
shu
w rice
st as
uplaise,
toffs,
noticing the spring
owner
cooker
to eat of it is just ou hard.
the
a
no gas, a lot of pe of last year
crossingof a jewelry com 77-year-o
cook at lot more,” t of pocket,
op
we sta
going
rted
water either cookin le coming
Street Madison Av pany, was ld
steam home it’s jus said Mak. “W
,”
out
in
ing an said Donna g gas or he that had
when a during the mo enue at 36th
cally.” things with t a rice cooker hen we
at
livery-cab rning rus
it, or ma
Ameri d commun Chiu, direct and hot
cor
. You can
ner
h
dri
ity
or
can
La st Se
and hit
ke rice,
her. ver turned the
Chiu cal s For Equa ser vices forof housptemb
The
basihundred
er
Asian
said AA led the inc lity.
arresteddriver of the car
no natur s of others her bu ild ing
ing an FE is worki rease “freak
pedest for failing to was
joi ned
an ins al gas, cut across the
d
pe
off
town almost a dong with Ma ish,” and
been citrian, and cop yield to a
Building ction blitz by Con Ed city with
an
ser vic d the Lowe zen others k’s buildtraffic vioed for at leasts say he had
a month s that bega by the city’sison after
es.
10 oth
lations
advocat And Ch r East Side in ChinaIt
sin
wa
East Vil after a fat n last April, Dept. of
iu, lik
ce 2015. er
es, ha
al ga
e ma to restor
exp
les
litany ofs but the latest
lage tha
s
t claim s explosion s than lon loitation by witnessed ny housinge
that hav traffic deaths in a sad
ed two
bu
g servic
in the
a
lives.
e interr ilding owne pattern of
Mayor e lingered on, and injuries
rs wh
uptions
curb traBill de Blasio’s despite
CONTINU
in an eff o proffic crashe efforts
ort to
ED ON
Da
to
uplais
s
PA

MUSEUM T
APS NEIGH
BORHOOD
GROUPS

Yes! Start my $49 subscription right away!
Plus give it to a friend for just $10

To read about other people who have had their
“15 Minutes” go to westsidespirit.com/15 minutes

YOUR 15 MINUTES

BORN PURPLE, AND FUNNY
BY JOSHUA NASSER

comedians from so many different
worlds of the New York comedy scene.
It was nice because I think it’s easy to
be accepted in your college improv
team, but it felt really nice when I was
integrated into the New York comedy
scene. There are so many pockets of it.

Leanne Velednitsky is a New Yorkbased actor, writer and comedian. She
graduated from NYU Tisch’s Experimental Theatre Wing in 2016, and has
studied sketch/improv at UCB and the
Magnet. She’s worked at Full Frontal
with Samantha Bee and the digital
comedy company Above Average. She
talked about her time in New York, the
city’s different comedy “pockets” and
what she thinks is next to come.

So, to start this off, I’m gonna ask an
easy question, do you think funny people
are born funny?
Nah, funny people are born purple.

Okay, interesting, so do you think you
weren’t born funny?
Nah, when I was born, and I was
purple.

So I’m gonna take that as a yes, people
can be born funny. I will say I don’t think
you have to be born funny to be funny.
Haha sure I’d agree with that.

But after being born funny, I guess my
next question would be how long have
you been doing comedy?
I’ve been enjoying comedy for a very
long time. [Interviewer and subject
both laugh.] Do you mean just mean
doing comedy in New York?

Yeah that works. I was thinking overall,
but how long have you been doing comedy before New York?
I’ve been doing comedy for six years
now! Although four of those were
while I was attending college at NYU
in the city, so I guess we’ll say two
years in the big bad world!

What would you say has been the major
difference between the two?
I guess what I mean is, you feel a
difference doing comedy within the
singular institution of college for a
built-in audience of college students
and doing it on a larger scale of ... well,
for anyone.

What do you mean?
Audiences. You’re playing to your
bubble or you’re playing for the world.
But I don’t think that’s just a comedy
thing. That’s the major difference between college and after college —
nothing is guaranteed or handed to
you. You have to put effort into making
your community and seeing things
through. Especially as a freelance artist/comedian/person. There are far
less deadlines.

Oh what do you mean by pockets of it?
Just like different crowds you could
be with and stuff!

Comedian and actor Leanne Velednitsky
is currently appearing Off Broadway in
“Puffs,” at New World Stages. Photo:
Courtesy of Leanne Velednitsky

Sure, that makes sense.
And after all of that I’m doing it all
over New York! Although I was taking
improv classes outside of school when
I was in college, so I was always kind of
a part of that world.

And where would you say you are now?
Or rather how has post-college comedy
been?
It’s been good! Right now I’m a cast
member in Puffs which is playing Off
Broadway!

Oh I’ve heard of that show. It’s from
the perspective of the Hufflepuffs,
all throughout Harry Potter’s time at
Hogwarts right?
Yeah!

That concept is cool. What else?
I host a monthly variety show in
Brooklyn, and I make videos with my
production team Bad Apples. I perform improv, characters and I was on
a sketch team at The Magnet. I do all
this at various venues and shows. I’m
having fun.

What was the sketch team like? Was
that one of your ﬁrst post college comedy experiences?
It wasn’t my ﬁrst but it was one that
I’m very happy I was on!

I’m just curious about what changed you
from college comedian to comic in New
York?
I got on a team at the Magnet in August of 2017. You audition for teams
there and they have a really great
policy where women and POC don’t
need to have trained at the Magnet to
be able to audition. I was happy I was
able to audition, then I got onto a team
which is called The Nitro Girls. I was
on that team for more than a year. The
Magnet is such a wonderful community and it was nice to meet so many

I see. I always think those are kind of
interesting. You may belong to a speciﬁc
pocket, but comedy’s just so huge in
general. Like you could be a comic in the
club scene, or do improv, or alt comedy
and still barely touch all of the social
circles. I’m rambling. Anyways how do
you feel about the pockets and such?
I feel ﬁne personally, I’ve always felt
like a ﬂoater throughout life, whether
it be socially or skill-wise. I like to do
different things. My resume says I’m
versatile, or at least that’s what i hope
it gives off! [laughs] And that has led
me to dip my toes into a lot of different
comedic waters.

From being in these different pockets,
in what ways have you seen comedy
change and what do you think you’re
looking forward to the most with
comedy in New York or with comedy in
general?
I like the idea of more acceptance being pushed. People are caring for others in a very good way and it’s just nice
to see. Recently you’ve been seeing
more mics being run by women, LGBTQ, and people of color and that has
been a huge shift from what the scene
was like when I was in college. I was
mainly doing improv and sketch back
then, but I was on a stand up team at
NYU, which was pretty much the only
place I did stand up. NYU was nice but
when I would venture out into the city
you would see some mics that were
run with a negative energy. Now that
I’m out it’s been nice to see the changes that have happened in the meantime. There’s still a long way to go but
it’s nice to know these spaces exist.

That’s great that such a positive shift
has happened throughout your career.
Well thanks so much Leanne this was
really nice.
Thanks for having me, this was fun!
Check out more of Leanne’s work at her
website www.leannevelednitsky.com

Know somebody who deserves
their 15 Minutes of fame? Go to
westsidespirit.com and click
on submit a press release or
announcement.

31

4
5
6

5

4

9

6

N
U
S
T
H
F
V
O
C
F
D
U
S
S
N

D
E
P
G
B
I
B
O
S
I
Y
E
X
O
N

S
A
E
S
J
C
B
L
R
S
T
R
I
K
E

The puzzle contains the
following words. They may
be diagonal, across, or up
and down in the grid in any
direction.

Each Sudoku puzzle
consists of a 9X9
grid that has been
subdivided into nine
smaller grids of 3X3
squares. To solve
the puzzle each row,
column and box
must contain each
of the numbers 1
to 9. Puzzles come
in three grades:
easy, medium and
difficult.

POLICY NOTICE: We make every eﬀort to avoid mistakes in your classiﬁed ads. Check your ad the ﬁrst week it runs. The publication will
only accept responsibility for the ﬁrst incorrect insertion. The publication assumes no ﬁnancial responsibility for errors or omissions. We
reserve the right to edit, reject, or re-classify any ad. Contact your sales rep directly for any copy changes. All classiﬁed ads are pre-paid.